Boeing KB-29P 44-83950, 2nd Air Refuelling Squadron, 2nd Bomb Wing, USAF, crashed at Carsphairn on the 7th July 1951
Joseph A. O’Leary | 1st Lieutenant | Pilot | Killed |
George Merrill Foote | 1st Lieutenant | Co-pilot | Killed |
Claude Jacques Hayden Jr | 1st Lieutenant | Navigator | Killed |
Noel M. Poppoff | Staff Sergeant | Engineer | Killed |
Tennant A. Metz | Captain | Radar Operator | Killed |
John B. Simpson | Corporal | Radio Operator | Killed |
John P. Finnegan | Corporal | Scanner | Killed |
Jack W. Kern | 1st Lieutenant | Boom Instructor | Killed |
Henry H. Hill | Technical Sergeant | Boom Operator | Killed |
Wallace L. Scott | Staff Sergeant | Boom Operator (u/t) | Killed |
Reginald Y. Russell | Corporal | Boom Operator (u/t) | Killed |
The aircraft had taken off from RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk at 09:17 (BST) for a Radar Navigation Flight which was to be followed by 4 hours of Air to Air refuelling practice with a Boeing B-50. At 11:03 the aircraft was in contact with the controller at Prestwick, having entered the Scottish Flight Information Region, the pilot reported they were at a altitude of ~14,500ft in visual conditions. Only 7 minutes later the aircraft was seen be witnesses on the ground descending out of cloud at 1,500 to 2,000ft over Carsphairn on a NNW course. They stated that the engines sounded different to the aircraft which normally over-flew the area. The aircraft then turned onto a SE course before stalling and entering a spin from which it did not recover before impacted the ground in a deep gully at the edge of a field. The fuel tanks, containing an estimated 8,000 US Gallons exploded and completely destroyed the aircraft, scattering it over a considerable area.

The only real clue is the re-aligned section of wall and the remains of the original which was destroyed by the aircraft.



